![Poem begun at 55 bis ...., Paris, 26 Aug. 1986, 12:50 p.m.—12:57, 6:40 p.m.—7:51, [*10:20 p.m.—12.18 a.m.*]
DAMN A FIRING SQUAD
by J. A. Emanuel
Damn a firing squad,
[Business lipped] metal-lipped and blind to what [before they see,
[their rifles raised like [undecipherable] firming,
[their barrels] rifle sights pointed like [verdicts] testimony
[sawed] cut up, [stitched together, knifed] regrooved, tooled into line
[their] trigger fingers light as coils [mechanism]
inside a clock stopped ticking —
[rag doll makers, turn their backs]
[of the goods they knew.]
Nothing-personal killers
Repeating the verdict.
[*12:57 stopped here (final line maybe: Damn a firing squad, its duty done.) Or Damn this daily business of the world, its duty done.) Or … if it be possible to damn the daily business…).*]
Firing squad, [proud]
[proud]
[shining up for a funeral,]
proud as the Arlington bugler,
[all] shining/[up]their boots for the funeral
for sharp salutes into the grieving air,
bullets for the hero
still soldering there.
Mountain firing squad,
bandoliered, [and whiskers] bearded as/[bushes]shrubbery,
scowling at [the] traitors
who are tongue-tied at [never understood] their treason,
who slump [sank] suddenly, like rag dolls,
against their tight tree trunks,
[*line by itself*]
[*who jerk like rag dolls and slump on their tree trunks*]
as if tired of it all.
Damn a firing squad--
if it be possible
to damn the daily business
of this world.](https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/system/resource/c/0/0/c005bf3d-c6b1-494d-bad5-16f72abfabe5/attachment/f7819c1f749ee9f1f653770ce33bf7fc.jpg)
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For Malcolm, U.S.A.
![133
Emmett Till1
I hear a whistling
Through the water
Little Emmett
Won’t be still.
He keeps floating
Round the darkness,
Edging through
The silent chill.
Tell me, please,
That bedtime story
Of the fairy
River Boy
Who swims forever,
Deep in treasures,
Necklaced in
A coral toy.
1963
1963
1 In 1955, Till, a fourteen-year-old from Chicago, was lynched in Mississippi for allegedly making improper advances toward a white woman.
[The Norton Introduction to Literature, Fourth Edition (1986), page 745, handles the factual background by this footnote.]](https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/system/resource/3/3/0/33063606-d5de-4747-a896-c5c314852b44/attachment/2a454279405e8f9e1690a0df368691de.jpg)
Emmett Till
After the Accident
Sadface at Five
Black Man, 13th Floor (with annotations) 2
Draft, Haiku for Racists Remembered
THE KNOTMAKER
![First ideas for Lost Generation poem, rue du Midi, 17 Aug. 1978. We have stopped whole machines to get the silence needed to hear if you are still breathingDon't you believe us? We were lying lying LYING to you:Get up get up get up get up YOU Larry, who....Get up get up get up get up YOU so-and-so, who.... image of needle dangling from arm + other "machines" dragging, maiming, confusing the Black teenagersThe noise you hear: it is the sound of our feet, the sound of our bands, the sound of our jaws... we are coming to get you get you get you... we will do anything ANYTHING to wake you up, to bring you back... we need you... wake up wake up wake up WAKE UPwe have planes to bring you back, we have bombs, yes, bombs, to blast you out of those holes if you try to hide...we have computers to tell us all, yes, ALL we need to know...we can even teach you, even you, to run them run them [computers]we have jobs oh jobs, and you have the skills: can't you plant the trees again, scoop out the rivers, repair the feathers on the birds... (Movement of poem maybe goes from beginning irritation and blame to final almost-plea to "save us" or "save me")](https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/system/resource/7/3/a/73a5a59e-4b10-4542-98ca-1f9b4db5d393/attachment/72d9b8ae46757a204ee7ed5444c9c6dd.jpg)
First ideas for LOST GENERATION
DEADLY JAMES (For All the Victims of Police Brutality)